Tej’s family reported him as missing on the evening of 27th April 2016 when he failed to return home to attend his father’s birthday dinner. This was completely out of character for Tej.
The usual routine for Tej Chitnis was to drive to the nearby Blackburn railway station, park his car (TTF 517) in a side street and catch a train to his university. On the morning of 27th April 2016, Tej left his Burwood East home around 10:00 am as usual, in his silver Golf car. He has not been seen since.
The family appealed to the public to help find him and bring him home. They combed all areas in and around Melbourne to find their son. They put posters and asked the public to jog their memory for any sighting – but to no avail.
The family also started a to help find him. Tej used to work at an Officeworks branch. His friends from his job and basketball team also posted a video urging him to get in touch with them.
Source: Supplied
Source: Supplied
followed and reported on this story extensively last year. In an interview with SBS Punjabi, Tej’s father Jayant Chitnis said,
“People can’t vanish like that. The car hasn’t been found, the mobile phone is switched off and his bank account hasn’t been touched”
The police treated this as a missing person case but had no leads to work on. The only one clue that the police came across was from Tej’s mobile phone signal data. Tej’s phone was last located in Healesville area just after 11:30 am on Wednesday morning, the 27th of April 2016. The family then left no stone unturned in searching for him in the Yarra Valley region.
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“His Vodafone records show his mobile phone was switched off at 11:26am, but we found out on Saturday there was a ping from his phone near Healesville at 11:49am so we’re looking around there now,” said Rudra, Tej’s brother.
Tej’s silver Golf car was also believed to be seen last in the Healesville area on a vision captured by a CCTV camera of a petrol station.
Then the mystery of his disappearance deepened when The Age reported that Tej , who was thought to be studying a Health Science course at Deakin University, had, in fact, not attended this university since 2014. This led to speculations that maybe, Tej left on his own accord.
Tej’s family denied knowing anything about it and have always maintained that there was no disagreement or dispute of any kind at all in their domestic life. In an interview with SBS Punjabi, Tej’s mum Reeva Chitnis said,
“If he has gone on his own accord, there was something he was hiding from us, and the stress he has been under or whatever… that’s not the child we know," she added.
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Many weeks passed without any information of Tej at all and the family felt that police could have done more,
"I think, they (police) could have done much earlier. I understand they have processes and procedures to follow. But, the leads that we give if somebody acts upon them really quickly would be ok. They have only yesterday assigned a senior detective to look into it. For me, that’s too late already," Mrs. Chitnis had told SBS.
As Australia entered the summer/ holiday season, Victoria Police published a video as part of their Summer of Hope campaign appealing the public to help find Tej Chitnis. AFP believes that the families already struggling to live with the disappearance of their loved ones face an especially difficult and emotional times during the holiday season. The National Missing Persons Coordination Centre has partnered with Chemist Warehouse to profile a series of missing persons and will be posting them on social media in the hope of reuniting the families with their loved ones. Over the summer period, people will see weekly persons profile on AFP Facebook page and in Chemist Warehouse stores and catalogues arouns the country. Tej Chitnis’ profile is one of them that have been posted on social media in a hope to fine him.
It's been almost nine months since Tej disappeared without a trace. the family is still hopeful and waiting for his return.
Anyone who has seen Tej or has any information is urged to contact the Forest hill Police Station on 88473600 or call 000.
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